Applications of the Ascension

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Man, it's been a great week.

We had an amazing uh weekend last weekend with our extravaganza and then Easter services.

Uh by the way, the largest crowd we've ever had in CCW history for a service was last Sunday.

Praise God! And so we're gonna celebrate Easter next week as well.

Make sure you let everyone know.

And uh no, it was it's very exciting.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you, guests that are here today.

We are so happy to have you.

And I'll give you one small little uh commercial because I'm passionate about it and I won't say nothing about it later, but we are um we have our open signups for our connect groups right now.

And so next Sunday, April 23rd, if you want to know how to get in deeper, dig in with church family, get to know those people that sit around you for more than the 15 before and after church.

Connect groups.

We love them, and God is doing some great works through them.

So if you have any questions about them, you need to see Gavin McCannless.

Uh but we are super excited about that.

I've got a couple of students that are visiting with us from North Carolina.

So students that were Drew, Drew, I won't make you stand.

But Drew Barriclo was in my youth ministry in Indiana.

He married a wonderful young lady named Katie, and they're here with us today.

And so if you ever need to find out information that is probably falsified, get Drew and Joe together.

They were both in my youth ministry.

And uh sort of aging me to see grown men that were in my youth ministry.

But, anyways, glad y'all are here.

And I will say one more thing.

Thank you, those that have the bed babies with us.

We know we are in a work in progress.

Praise God for what's happening, but we had to uh we're moving the stairwell and constructing over here, connecting to the new kids building where it will be fully functioning and available soon.

But if you have a baby in here today, we love it.

You know, I'm I'm happy to hear them in youth ministry.

We've taken our kids to every trip forever since they were little babies, and it's just, it's if there's gonna be background noise, it's beautiful background noise.

So we want them growing up this way.

Anyway, turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 1, and we are going to uh kind of finish up with this little mini Easter series with applications from the ascension in Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention Acts 1 · chapter mention

And uh the disciples were three years on a missions trip with Jesus, and they had seen everything that they'd never seen.

They had seen miracles, they had seen lame walk, blind to see, deaf to hear, demons cast out.

They had seen things that nobody had really ever seen.

And for you and me, probably just one of those instances would be enough for us to say, man, I'm in.

I'm in for what this guy's doing, for what he's saying and showing, I'm in.

And they were wholly impacted.

But then, last week we celebrated, but they watched this man that they followed do all these things and this powerful teaching.

They watched him die.

And they watched him rise from the dead, and they heard him say, but he's gonna tell them on this day something again, that he was gonna leave them.

Imagine how the mind comprehends things.

You would never want this to end.

You can't comprehend the things that he's teaching, he's teaching with such authority, but he says, I'm going to leave.

And their minds are just very perplexed at this idea that he's gonna leave.

It's kind of like today, if you were, have you ever tried to teach a great grandparent how to use a new phone?

And you you had to teach them and you say, Hey, listen, you can do this amazing thing.

You can talk to your phone, you can say, hey Siri, text so and so.

Hey Siri, text Joe.

So you don't ever have to talk to Joe.

You can tell your phone to send letters to your friend that you don't have to talk to, and they're like, but the phone was an amazing discovery.

Why are you not using it to talk to humans?

You say, no, I'll just tell Siri, and she talks for me in letters, right?

It's very confusing to people.

Disciples knew one thing they had left their jobs, they had left their homes, they had put everything on the line to follow this man, and now he's about to be gone.

So, what does that mean?

Let me pray.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for your word, and we thank you that God, Jesus didn't just leave.

He didn't leave us without, he didn't leave us without a plan.

And God, I pray that today we would understand for this century, this time, right now, the plan that still stands for us today.

Fill us with this, Lord.

Let your Holy Spirit move in this place in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Look at Acts 1, 4, and 5.

The first thing we'll see as you're turning there, it's a complexing future.

Point number one, a complexing future.

It says, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait, underline this in your Bible, if you're an underliner, for the promise of the Father, which he said, you've heard from me.

I've talked about this before.

Verse 5, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now.

The letter A this morning is this a supply by the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father that he's talking about, that he talked about previously.

Isaiah 44, verse 3 puts it this way.

Isaiah 44:3

Listen to this.

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground.

I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants.

In John 14, he was talking about the Holy Spirit coming, and he told the disciples, unless I go away, unless I leave, the counselor will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

And Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, this is what he said, that his ministry is going to be greater than mine.

He said, Hold up, Pastor.

What are you saying?

He said, the ministry of the Holy Spirit in scope, he says it will be greater.

Why?

Because Jesus on this earth had physical human limitations, self-absorbed, okay?

At any moment he could have stopped it, but he had physical imposed limitations to be human, to be a man, and the Holy Spirit that he was sending could live in every Christian and be with every Christian who can go all over the place.

And so the ministry of the Holy Spirit was coming, and Jesus even said it would be greater in power.

So how am I to understand this phenomenon, Pastor?

You know, we live in this three-dimensional world, so we see things in height and length and width.

But heaven, I've said to you before, is another dimension.

It's not like Earth's dimension.

And God can do things in the invisible that we can't totally comprehend, like send his spirit, which is not three-dimensional, into a three-dimensional person.

And he can live and act.

And so the physical body of a believer is the house, the Bible says, of the Holy Spirit.

And so the scope changes with that.

And so he says to the disciples, go reach this world.

And it starts right here with them.

Well, I want to tell you a little more about that power.

Romans 8 11 says this about the Holy Spirit that's in you and I.

It says, but the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.

Now I want you to think about that for a second.

The greatest miracle of all of creation that happened, it says that the Holy Spirit, you get into some depth of scripture here, but the Holy Spirit was one part of that miracle.

The Bible says in another place that the Father raised him, it says that Jesus was involved.

So the triunity of God was all involved in the raising, but he in Romans points out it's through his spirit.

And he says, if that spirit raises Jesus from the dead, the same spirit one day will raise us.

So when you think about that, it makes me, when I think about that spirit living in me, that power makes me go, wow.

Don't miss the weight.

The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, he says in verse 8.

That upon, that word is Greek, it's epi, and it means position and direction and charge.

The Holy Spirit in position, direction, and charge will come upon the believer.

1 Corinthians 6.19 says it this way, but know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And so it comes upon us as a residency in us.

The same Holy Spirit who performed this great miracle.

What an honor, church.

What a privilege.

What responsibility, what power.

The Holy Spirit lies in us.

It made me think about a story I heard.

We would go to Gotel Camp in Tacoa, Georgia, and early on in going to that camp, I heard the story of a man named Rick Stanley.

And as I share a little bit of his story, you're going to see some pictures come up.

Rick Stanley grew up in a broken and abusive home with an alcoholic father.

And about the age of five, his mother took him and his two brothers to a boarding school, dropped them off in Virginia, and really gave them no idea of what was to come.

Just dropped them there.

And they were there for several months, estranged from their mother.

And I remember him telling descriptions of the story being there that was a nightmare.

And he said, all of a sudden, out of the blue, one day, a big Lincoln Continental just rode up to that boarding school, and his mom got out and said, Boys, I've divorced your father, and this is my new husband.

So they gathered in, of course, they wanted away from that place and they drove off.

And the next place that Rick Stanley says he remember awakening to was this big, beautiful mansion.

And he walks out of the mansion and he's walking through the house, just eyes star-struck at all that he was seeing.

And he walks in and he says, They took us up to this room where music was being played.

And he looked over in the corner, and there was a man just vivacious and full of life.

He could just tell by looking at him.

He said, That man came over to me, my two brothers, and he grabbed us up in his arms and said, You're my brothers now.

And that's just the way I'm gonna treat you.

He said he woke up the next day, and in the front yard there was a dog and a cat for each one of them.

There was a swing set for them, there were bicycles for each one of them, there were toys and gifts all over the Lord, and he and he thought to himself, Who is this man?

He wondered, well, I bet you'd like to know.

The man, the name of the man that his mom married was Vernon.

Vernon Presley.

Those three boys just moved into Graceland.

And they moved into Graceland, and the transformation that took place in Rick Stanley's life was being described to us as he just met his new brother, Elvis Presley.

It's undeniable that a man like Elvis Presley would have a tremendous impact on the life of Rick Stanley.

In fact, he said it was never the same.

But let me tell you what I heard from Rick Stanley's mouth before he passed on and went to heaven.

He said, I was touched by Elvis' life and impacted.

But the greatest touch that ever happened to my life was when I was touched by King Jesus.

In his book, I love the title, his book, The Touch of Two Kings.

Church, when Jesus ascended to heaven, he left within us the Holy Spirit of the living God.

It should be undeniable the impact that that has on a person's life.

The change should be so evidenced when God lives in a person.

You can't live with the king and not be changed.

Jesus said, I'm leaving, but he said the Holy Spirit is coming.

Look at verse 6 and 7.

Look at the disciples' response.

They just don't get what he's saying.

Look at their response.

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Bringing heaven to earth?

Is it now the time?

And he said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority.

Secrets are for the sovereign.

Secrets are for God.

There's mysteries that are listed in the Bible, and they're all for God.

And Isaiah says, His ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts and our thoughts.

There's some things this side of heaven that we're just not going to know.

I was given a book by Benji's father, David Wilson, and I read it at the beach, and it was called Believe in Miracles, Trust in Jesus.

Y'all listen, I'm gonna say that title again so you can get the next part.

Pretty cool.

Believe in Miracles, but Trust in Jesus.

I'm reading this book, and Heather's mom, we call her Graham.

Graham has her phone.

She's out on the balcony, she stands up, the phone falls off her lap, falls five floors to the ground.

And I'm like, are you serious?

And so, look, I know it sounds silly, but we're Christians, you know.

The Bible calls us peculiar people.

We go ahead and go to prayer.

The phone fell.

Well, either he's gonna answer or he's not like, Lord, I just pray that phone still exists.

This would be a bad, you know, set to the week.

She goes downstairs, comes back up.

You won't believe this.

There's barely a scratch on a phone, and it worked.

I said, believe in miracles, trust in Jesus.

It's unbelievable.

Adrian Rogers said this in the book.

Pray and believe, and you can receive.

Pray and doubt, and you'll do without.

Let me say that one more time.

Pray and believe, and you can receive.

If you pray with doubt, you'll do without.

Well, let me tell you about this idea of the disciples wanting to know the secrets, the signs, the seasons.

Four gospels all recount Jesus was sought by Pharisees for a sign.

And every time it ticked Jesus off.

He gets angry.

It made him angry that they came at him for a sign.

And I want you to understand why I'm gonna talk about that, but people want to debate today.

They want to debate about signs and sign gifts.

And I like what Adrian said.

I believe in miracles.

It's not about the man, it's about the man.

I believe in miracles.

I trust in Jesus.

By the way, Jesus never marveled in scripture at a miracle.

He marveled at the opposite.

Faith.

Faith or lack of faith.

Two or three times in scripture it says he was marveled.

He marveled at their faith.

He stopped and said, wait a second, they believe like that?

Or a lack of faith that said it almost like sapped his strength to do miracles.

And so it was faith, which is the opposite of that sign.

It's the evidence of things not seen.

And so he said, that faith moved him, and he got angry at these people looking for a miracle, looking for a sign.

He says, You gotta have faith to believe in what you have not seen.

Now I want to uh let something be known today.

There is a difference in those signs and signs of the times, which is what the disciples are sort of asking here.

Tell us, Jesus, when is your return gonna be?

And the disciples are concerned.

They see him going, they want, why are you going?

When are you gonna be back?

What are we gonna do without you?

And you can see the way that they're perplexed about this.

And he says basically, it's not for you to know times or seasons.

And let me tell you, church, people have been predicting the return of Jesus and the end of time for centuries.

William Miller put bank that it'd be 1843.

You remember Y2K?

Oh, we were all done.

I don't know if you were in a house like me, they shut off all the lights, and I was like, y'all, mmm, that wasn't nice.

Half a second, my heart skipped a beat.

In 2012, you remember the Mayan calendar?

It was coming to an end.

In 1835, apparently, Jesus Christ told Joseph Smith that I like this.

He gave himself a scope.

In the next 56 years, Jesus is coming.

That's coming past.

Didn't happen.

Remember the hail bop comet?

There was a comet coming, gonna end the world.

39 people were in that cult in 1997.

They killed themselves over this coming comet that was gonna end the world.

Matthew 24, 36 says this church.

I'm gonna help everyone who's looking.

Look, if you go down the rabbit hole on the internet, go.

I mean, it's it's kind of fun.

I'm not gonna lie.

It's a little bit fun running running down the trails, but I wouldn't put bank on any of it because Matthew 24, 36 says, no man knows the date or the hour.

Jesus' words.

Deuteronomy 29, 29 says, secret things are for the Lord.

There are signs and secrets, but they're the Lord.

Now, signs of the times, I will tell you.

All of Matthew 24 talks about signs of the times, and I'm telling you, they're going off like a flashing jumbotron.

It says, Wars and rumors of wars.

This is a sign of the time.

Then it says famine of the land.

You know what's the greatest cause of famine?

Wars and rumors of wars.

And so these are happening all over, and then pestilences.

As it goes on, it talks about Christianity will be hated in Matthew 24.

Oh my goodness.

The oppression of Christianity.

Everybody right now, it's you know, we're we're hate speech by speaking the word of God.

Is Christianity hated?

Absolutely.

False prophets will abound, it's everywhere.

People are selling a fake message.

I'm gonna tell you, church, if it's not coming from this book, man, don't just listen to somebody motivationally speak.

I mean, go listen to a TED talk for your work, but motivational speaking about the word of God, if it's not scripture, then it's it, there's there's nothing there.

It's weak, it's watered.

And so there's people all over with fake messages.

It's like a blaring screen happening right now.

I'm gonna tell you, they're all here.

Isaiah, you can study this, and I'm not a doomsday person.

I'm gonna live to the last drop.

I'm not gonna be in fright.

I'm not gonna go pack up 6,000 cases of water.

I'm gonna live to the last, do all I can while I'm here.

But if I read and understand scripture and look at the signs, Isaiah 17, Ezekiel 37 or 39, it says that there is a war coming and that there's an enemy from the north called Gog, okay?

And I don't understand all the scripture, but it says they're coming from this direction, and it's a picture of like a military type of power, and they're coming towards the nation of Israel, and it says they'll be compassed by enemies.

That is all in place, folks.

There's a one-world currency coming.

Now, I'm not gonna live in doom about it because I'm not sad about it.

If Jesus is coming, do you have a grasp of heaven?

Here's the thing that makes people feel doom and sad is their idea is that this earth is the very best that there is.

The experience that I have with these people are the very best that I can have.

And your your idea of heaven is weak.

And if you get sad about Jesus' return, the reality is we need a better grasp of what heaven and the worship of God is going to be.

The very best thing you can think of does not compare, doesn't come close.

And trust me, I I want more memories with my wife, with my family.

I don't dispute that.

And as a pastor, I have hope.

I have hope for this generation.

I have hope.

You know why I have great hope?

Some people say, it's coming, Pastor.

It's gonna end any time, any second.

Okay, well, I'm ready, but as a pastor, my hope is this.

I've read Jonah.

Have y'all read Jonah?

Judgment was coming, judgment was sure.

Judgment was to be pronounced.

And Jonah came and the city repented.

And so judgment was delayed.

And I hope that happens.

I hope revival comes.

I have hope.

Because if it happened for Jonah and those people, it can happen again.

But the bottom line is this.

Jesus said in his word, when my gospel goes forth to the last person, I'm coming.

We don't know date, time, hour, moment.

That's for him.

Our concern is not the when, but listen to me.

Our concern is absolutely the what.

Since Jesus is coming, what do we do?

I'm glad you asked, turn to verse 8.

Second thing is a challenging faith.

Challenge to our faith.

He says, but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And listen here.

If you want to underline anything in the Bible, this is your purpose.

This is it.

Every person here, whatever your job is, this is it.

And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Letter A this morning is this witnesses to what Christ has done through his works.

We're to be witnesses of the things that Christ has done.

A witness, the word witness in the Greek is it's interesting.

In the Greek it's martus.

The same word for martyr.

Now it was changed in definition from Greek to English.

In English, we believe a martyr is a person who is killed for their religious beliefs.

But in the Greek, it means a witness.

I want you to look at a couple of scriptures.

Turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

These witnesses, these disciples, and their witness was very important.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19 through 22, we'll read through.

Ephesians 2:19–22

Look at what it says.

How important were these witnesses as the disciples were told this command?

Very important to the very structure of where we're at today.

Now, therefore, you are no longer, this verse 19, strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

We're family, in other words.

Having been built upon on the foundation of the apostles.

We were all built upon this foundation that started with these disciples being called to be a witness.

And it says, now Jesus is Christ, Jesus Christ Himself is the chief cornerstone.

He's the glue, he's the bond.

That's how come I can meet a brother in Christ, never met him before, and all of a sudden I feel close.

He's the bond that glues us together through ages, through generations, it doesn't matter.

In whom, verse 21, the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

He's talking about the church, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

That's what we were saying.

The Holy Spirit is this dwelling place.

And so it was this witness of these disciples that built the foundation of the church that we're in today.

And the works of Jesus Christ was to be their witness.

What they seen, all they heard, and that's what we see in the gospels recorded.

Everything that they seen of him was to be told.

Now, people will get kind of tied up in what I said earlier.

There's 37 recorded miracles.

And it's important that we see this witness and this testimony, but I think it goes deeper than just those works because every verse of the gospel contains a record of maybe greater works than just miracles.

I want you to think about Jesus and how he conducted himself.

His love is a thread through the Gospels.

We see the fruit of the kind of person that we as believers are supposed to be.

A witness to live today, hear me, a witness to live today like Jesus lived.

In a world full of hatred, in a world full of angers, it's full of lies and propaganda and filth and self.

Most refreshing through the pages of the gospels is the witness of Jesus' life.

How was Jesus?

Jesus was gentle and a gentleman.

Jesus was compassionate.

Jesus loved children, widows, lepers, tax collectors, sick people.

Jesus took time in every instance that you see him.

He was not hurried.

If you were in front of him today, he would take his time, look you in the eye, and hear what you had to say.

Jesus took time.

He listened.

He was gracious.

He was hardworking.

He was thoughtful.

Jesus was humble.

Are you seeing the witness of his works even past the miracles?

How can we live our life?

Jesus shows the disciples a witness of that.

Are you a witness of those things to others?

Are you, church?

You're the only first hand witness to what Jesus has done for you in your life.

You're the only one with your testimony.

Is it sealed up or is it spoken out often?

You're a witness.

Your testimony, by the way, is undebatable.

People will debate apologetics, they'll debate all kinds of things, but they can't debate with you about your testimony.

It's yours.

Oh no, that didn't happen.

Oh, you can't debate this.

You can't debate this change.

I love the blind man's witness.

I was blind, I met Jesus.

Now I can see.

Man, that was his testimony from then on.

And you know what?

If you were blind before and all of a sudden you can see things, I bet you look a little different in your life.

You're a witness.

You're a witness of the prayers that you've offered up before God and He's answered.

Are you praying?

You're the one with that witness.

You're a witness of things being reconciled in families and you working through hard things.

You're a witness of forgiveness and healing of past wounds and bitterness.

You're a witness.

How the old you would never be able to have done that.

But this new you working through Jesus can do things that the old you couldn't do.

You're a witness.

Because Jesus has changed you.

You can't live with the king and be the same.

I want you to look at your neighbor today and say this.

Can I get a witness?

Turn to Luke chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

Luke has another description of what's happening here in Acts, also, and I think it's important that we hear Luke, what Luke has to say.

So we've seen letter A was witnesses through his works, letter B is witnesses to what Christ has revealed through his word.

And right before the ascension here, Luke records it in verse 44 this way.

Then he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend, listen to this, the scriptures.

Then he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and the repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations.

And you are witnesses of these things.

So important, secondly, was witnesses to what he's revealed through his word.

You want to know the secret to 21st century discipling of people?

You can go to conferences, you can pay big money, but I'm telling you, you're getting a deal today.

Here is the secret, the gold mine to 21st century discipling, and Jesus showed it.

He said, He opened up the scriptures and made sure they understood them.

That's it.

That's the big secret.

He said, he opened up the scriptures and made sure they understood them.

Parents?

Do you want to disciple your children?

Have you opened up the scriptures and made sure they understood them?

Do you want to disciple someone today?

Your coworker, your neighbor, your friend?

Have you opened up the scriptures and made sure they understand them?

Oh, books are great.

There's great helps.

But let me tell you, this book is the best one.

He opened up the scriptures before the disciples and made sure they understood them.

I want to say, as a commercial, if you're a new believer in the church here, we have people that have come to me and they want a disciple.

If you've never been discipled through the scripture and you've never had somebody help you to understand some things, please see me afterwards.

We want to sign you up.

We want to help you.

We want to make sure that you have a chance to be discipled the way that Jesus taught discipleship.

Literally, what we do in connect groups, hear me out.

Along with eating, I mean, we got priorities around here, you know what I'm saying?

We're going to eat.

We pray too.

But we go verse by verse with a group of people trying to make sure that we understand what Jesus said for discipleship.

So, what would Jesus want revealed through his word most?

I got thinking about this.

What would Jesus most want revealed to us in Scripture?

There's three things he talked about most.

And I want you to tell you, money is not it.

People think money, he used money as a metaphor for a lot of things, but it wasn't the topic itself of how you use your finances.

He did talk about that.

Three things he talked about most: heaven, hell, and faith or salvation.

So it was all about eternity.

Heaven, hell.

So I want to talk to you just briefly about these things that it was most important to Jesus: heaven, hell, and how that we can have eternity with Christ.

He talked about heaven and listen to me.

Revelation 21, 16 says heaven is a city four square.

The length as large as the breadth and the height, he measured the city with a reed.

It was 12,000 furlongs, meaning 1,500 square miles.

Somebody showed me this a long time ago, but it was like going from the bottom of the map up to Canada and back down to Mexico in a square from Texas.

And in four square, and he says 1,500 square miles in length, breadth and height.

So it was length and breadth is that width and length I just talked about, and then 1,500 high, straight up in the air.

And so the Bible says in John 14, 2, there are many rooms.

Heaven is big, heaven is beautiful.

Scripture says it shines with the glory of God, the brilliance of walls with jasper, streets made of translucent gold, cities and walls decorated with every precious stone.

Heaven is beautiful.

Heaven is blessed.

Heaven is a place where the Bible says there's no more tears, no more sorrow, no more hunger, no more pain, no more weeping, no more crying.

There will be food.

I believe in that.

It says there's a marriage supper of the lamb.

So if there was one, there's one time for food, there has to be more.

I have to believe it.

But we'll be eternally satisfied, worshiping Jesus.

He talks about heaven, and then he talks about hell.

Hell is forever, Revelation 20, 10 says.

And they are cast into the lake of fire forever and ever.

The description there is the lake of fire.

I want you to see in Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Verse 43 through 48.

It's important that you see these things.

It says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, is better for you to enter into life maimed rather than having two hands to go to hell into the fire that shall never be quenched.

Where the worm does not die, verse 44, and the fire again is not quenched.

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off, is better for you to enter life lame rather than having two feet to be cast into hell into the fire that shall never be quenched.

Where the worm does not die, verse 46, and the fire is not quenched.

Verse 47, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.

It's better for you to enter the kingdom of heaven with one eye rather than having two eyes be cast into hell fire where the worm does not die, and the fire does not quench.

Over and over and over, he says the fire of hell is not quenched.

It's a place where there's not going to be a fire truck, there's not going to be a water supply.

There's not going to be a 911.

You can be drowning in the Atlantic Ocean now and get in touch with a coast card to bring you relief.

You can be burning in home and get relief.

There's no help.

Hell is a place without the possibility of relief.

Over and over, he says, weeping and gnashing of teeth, fires unquenched, agony and darkness, no food, no sleep.

Conscious that you didn't have to be in this place.

It was a choice.

Jesus died, in fact, to keep you.

He did everything he could to keep you from this place.

But the reality is that heaven and hell are real.

And Jesus wanted you to know, and not only that, he wanted you as a witness to tell people how they could have salvation and not go to that place.

And so we see, lastly, this morning, the compelling flight.

Look at verses 9 and 10 in Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Compelling flight.

Now when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven?

Letter A is the immediate ascension in a cloud.

This immediate ascension.

And the disciples are probably still asking themselves this question, even though they've heard what they heard.

Why did he have to go?

The disciples and Jesus were back in a familiar place around Bethany.

Luke unfolds the end of that story in verse 50 and 53.

You can go there.

But in Bethany, right after Jesus commissioned them, it says that Jesus took the cloud.

I tried to find the cloud.

I Googled the cloud.

It said, servers that are accessed over the internet and software and databases that run on those servers.

That was the cloud.

Jesus did not ride that cloud.

Cloud here does not refer to a typical rain cloud either.

It refers to a glory cloud that surrounds the very presence of God.

In other words, when it was time for Jesus to leave this earth, Jesus took off on a cloud that was covered with the brilliance of his Father who would receive him.

I think about, I wonder what that cloud was like.

You've seen a beautiful sunset, sunrise, you've seen some pretty, beautiful sights and how God paints the sky.

What did the glory cloud of God look like as Jesus rose into ascension into heaven and the disciples are just there stuck, all struck.

It says they just gazed at this beauty.

Sometimes Heather will be doing something, and I just gaze.

Wow.

I just can't help but gaze over.

She's so beautiful that I gaze over and I catch myself.

Then I'll see her catch my eye, and I want her to think I'm creepy.

So I'm like, look back, and I gaze.

And she's just so beautiful.

Married men, I want you to do this.

I want you to look at your wife right now.

If you're married, look at your wife.

I mean, look her in the eye.

And I want you to say this.

Wow.

You're like a glorious cloud.

No, don't say that.

Can you imagine?

Jesus Christ returned into heaven.

And let me tell you, he's not up there taking a nap.

It says this in Hebrews 1.3, after making purification for sin, what he did on the cross, he has sat down at the right hand of the Father.

Paul said even more in Romans 8.34, he is at the right hand, interceding for us that know him.

Y'all are like, how do I get through this life?

Sometimes I just make every dumb decision.

Jesus is going before the Father saying, Lord, help him.

Lord, help him.

The Bible even says the Holy Spirit groans for us when we don't even know how to pray.

Both of them together are praying, trying, Lord, you know how human they are.

You know that's Rick.

You know it, Lord.

Just help him.

Oh Lord, help him.

He needs a lot of help.

Oh Lord, you know, Lord, you know.

And he's interceding on our behalf.

Oh my soul, I'm so thankful for the work because Satan is our accuser and he's knocking the door saying, you know what, they're a mess.

You know what?

They're sinful.

And Jesus is saying, let me just tell you about the cross.

And every time Satan tries to come with your accusal, Jesus says, You can walk away again, Satan.

This is seven billion, five million.

Every time you can walk away because I finished it at the cross.

He's our advocate continually pointing.

John 14 told us Jesus isn't in a hammock.

It says he goes to prepare a place for us.

Goes to prepare a place for us that where I go, he said, I'm gonna leave and I'm coming back again that you may be there as well.

When my children were little, there were times when I get ready and just about be at the door.

Some of you dads know what this is like.

I'd just about be out the door, ready to go to work, and they'd hug me or distract me.

And sometimes Wyatt would get a hold of one leg and Callie get a hold of the other leg, and I'd be walking around with them at my legs, and they say, Daddy, just stay home.

They look in my eyes.

You don't have to go to work, right?

You can just stay home.

Just stay here.

And I'd say something like, Daddy has important things to do.

You know, I've got to go and help people, and it helps take care of you and our family for me to go, and you know, this and that.

But when I think about this scenario, can you imagine what the disciples felt like?

I mean, it doesn't say it, but I think they probably all just wept.

Everything we've just seen for three years, could it?

This had to be the Messiah, and he's gone.

Poof.

There he went.

I know this.

And they're all asking each other, was this real?

This was really real, right?

We're not having a three-year dream.

This was real.

We did do this stuff, we recorded it, right?

This was real.

Well, thankfully, Jesus didn't leave him at I'm gone.

Look at verse 11.

Porton letter B, angelic communication.

Who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into the heavens?

This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go.

They said this, church, hear me.

Jesus is coming again.

He's coming back.

And I haven't done one funeral without sharing this scripture in my in the time that I've done funerals, done many.

First Thessalonians, Paul put it this way, 4, 16, and 17.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ will rise.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

And he says in closing, therefore, comfort one another with these words.

He's coming again.

He said it in John 14 3.

If I go and prepare, I will come again and receive you.

I grew up singing this old hymn.

Went like this.

Marvelous message we bring.

Glorious carol we sing.

Wonderful word of the King.

Jesus is coming again.

Maybe morning, maybe noon, maybe evening, and maybe soon.

Oh, what a wonderful day it will be.

My Jesus is coming again.

I used to look at the folks in the church as a young man as they were elderly with tears coming down their eyes, like, why does this make them so sad?

I don't get it.

They weren't sad.

Were a few steps closer than me, and they had a real grasp that one day this reality of heaven, this big, beautiful, blessed place, was gonna be mine to experience Jesus forever.

Well, what do we do with that, Pastor?

Okay, that's a good question.

Three practical things, and I'm done.

Because Jesus is coming again.

What should I do?

Number one, I need to be clean and empty.

This heart's gotta be ready.

I need to be clean and empty.

Number two, because Jesus is coming, I have to try hard to take people with me.

Church this week.

Very practical truth.

Because Jesus is coming, I gotta tell somebody this truth.

Why would I hold this?

Second thing, because he's coming, I gotta try hard to tell people so that they'll come with me.

Number three, because he's coming, it'd be better if I knew him well.

Because he's coming, when you have guests, isn't it a little better when you kind of know them?

When you've spent some time with them, isn't it a little better when you look forward to their appearing and you don't have all the questions, you're just happy to see him.

It's like you're right in tune.

When he comes, it's like you just finished the conversation, and there he is.

Because he's coming, you ought to know him well.

Well, I'll finish with this.

There was a gardener who had a large estate, worked for a large estate, and he was keeping a visitor there with him, walking them through the castle and showing them this beautiful, unbelievable palace, well-groomed grounds, and just kept it immaculate.

As the visitor had lunch with him one day, he asked, he said, This place, it's unbelievable how well you've kept it.

He said, By the way, when was the last time that the owner was here?

And the gardener said, Well, it's been 10, 11 years since the owner has been at this place.

And the visitor said, 10 years?

You keep this place like this and you haven't seen the owner in 10 years?

Why in the world do you do all this work and gardening?

It's immaculate.

And he looked at him and he said, Because I'm expecting him to return.

He said, Well, do you know when?

He said, I don't know when he's coming, but I'm expecting him today.

I'm expecting him now, so it's gonna be right.

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